Flickr Photo of UBC Library's ASRS (Automated Storage Retrieval System)

 OA Session for Today – Monday, October 24th:

A Course on Reproducible Research in Computational and Data Science:

What should it be?

@ 3:00-4:00pm today

Location: Leonard S. Klinck building, Rm 301 – 6356 Agricultural Road (Institute of Applied Mathematics)

Click here to see OA Week schedule at UBC Vancouver & UBC Okanagan.

Unless otherwise noted, all OA sessions held at UBC Vancouver are located in the Lillooet Room – 3rd floor – Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Connect from your own computer or come in-person to the free live OA webcast sessions.

Photo courtesy of UBC Library’s Flickr Photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubclibrary/4093904130/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Did You Know?

If you missed out on attending previous Open Access Week at UBC events, you can find a selection of podcast, webcast and other OA session presentations under the Library Events collection in cIRcle at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/2689.

The University of British Columbia now ranks 22^nd among the world’s universities, according to the 2011-2012 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, released yesterday in London, U.K. In a survey of the top 400 institutions around the world, UBC jumped eight spots from last year’s rank of 30^th. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings use 13 indicators to measure the university’s performance in teaching, research, research influence, innovation and international outlook. Nine Canadian universities ranked among Times Higher Education’s list of top 200.

“UBC’s ranking reflects our academic excellence and commitment to international engagement,” says UBC President Prof. Stephen Toope.

Read more about UBC’s rise among the top of 500 universities worldwide via UBC Public Affairs’ latest press release at: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2011/10/06/ubc-ranks-22nd-among-world-universities-jumping-eight-spots/.

Did You Know?

There are currently over 40 speeches archived in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository. You can access them in the Speeches by UBC President  Stephen J. Toope collection in cIRcle.

Above image is courtesy of the UBC Public Affairs‘ website

 Photo credit: Martin Dee, UBC Public Affairs

The purpose of the graduating essays/theses is to provide an opportunity for each student, during his/her graduating year, to undertake independent study, under direction of a faculty member, in a subject area of interest to him/her. The Faculty has found that employers in all segments of the natural resources community place a premium upon good oral and written communication. The thesis/essay is an important opportunity for training in rigorous thinking and effective writing.

There are over 100 Forestry undergraduate essays and theses available in cIRcle. Many have been viewed from various parts of the world. For example, the top three items in this collection have been viewed by the following countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Vietnam.

Did You Know?

Coming soon – UBC’s Engineering Physics Projects for 2011 will be available in cIRcle!

Above image is courtesy of the UBC Faculty of Forestry website

Open Access Week @ UBC 2011 is only three months away!

This year, the event theme is Open UBC and it will be held in conjunction with the International Open Access Week event, which encourages the academic community to come together to share and learn about open scholarship initiatives locally and worldwide.

Open UBC will be offering a week chock full of diverse events highlighting areas of open scholarship and research. In case you have not attended nor participated in Open Access Week @ UBC events in the past, these events typically include discussion forums, seminars, lectures, workshops, and symposia on topical yet timely issues from a variety of disciplines.

You are invited to attend and/or participate in these FREE and open public events happening during the week of October 24-30, 2011.

With an open “Call for Participation”, this is your opportunity to get involved and share your scholarly output or research and/or tools with fellow UBC researchers, faculty, students, staff and the public.

Did You Know?

Last year, there were many Page displays, File downloads, and Top Country Views of the Open Access Week @ UBC event presentations which are archived within the Library Events collection in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository. At a quick glance, here are the Top Country Views from Open Access Week held during October 18-24, 2010: Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States of America. To view the statistical detail of a cIRcle item, click on the “Show Statistical Information” hyperlink at the bottom of the item page.

Above image and partial excerpt in italics are courtesy of the Scholarly Communications @UBC website

How so?

As part of  the Summer Sizzlers: 30 Minute Library Workshops’ series, you will learn about cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository and how you can have your academic or research work searched by Google, Google Scholar, and other web search engines.

You will have the opportunity to learn what kinds of scholarly work is available in cIRcle, how you can contribute and what permissions are required in order to submit your own work such as research articles, presentations, and reports.

Pre-register for the cIRcle workshop at: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/2350

Pre-register for the other Education Library summer workshop offerings at: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/app/webroot/calendar/

Above partial excerpt is courtesy of the UBC Education Library

Above image is courtesy of Cepolina Photo website

Newly added conference papers to cIRcle!

The Explorations & Education Conference is the collaborative effort of graduate student representatives from the Graduate Student Council for the Faculty of Education, the Department of Educational Studies and the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. We have come together specifically to create a safe space for the exchange of academic ideas and to create opportunities particularly for graduate students (at all levels of study) to present their ideas and research.

This conference was held at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver campus) on April 1, 2011.

We are pleased to announce that cIRcle has recently added a few of these conference papers and that there will be some more conference papers coming soon. So, take a few minutes to enjoy reading them by visiting the Explorations and Education conference collection at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/34295.

Did You Know?

Coming soon – The latest cIRcle conference collection to be added to the Faculty of Education community under “Education Conferences” is “Investigating Our Practices”. Stay tuned for more details!

Above excerpt in italics is courtesy of the UBC Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy website

Above image is courtesy of the Explorations and Education announcement

Have you heard the news? There are two new EOS collections in cIRcle!

Two collections, recruited by Kevin Lindstrom, Liaison Librarian for Earth and Ocean Science, include Earth and Ocean Sciences undergraduate honours theses and Environmental Science undergraduate papers and reports. These collections highlight student-driven research, with topics including the impact of commercial shipping noise on killer whales, waste management strategies for Metro Vancouver and gas shale permeability measurements.

You can see more details about these collections in cIRcle by visiting the Earth and Ocean Sciences community in cIRcle.

To read the rest of this article, check out the Library’s July LibFOCUS enewsletter issue to be released next week.

Did You Know?

Currently, there are over 700 EOS theses and dissertations as well as research papers and materials in cIRcle. To browse some of these items, click on ‘Issue Date’ under ‘This Community’.

Above excerpt in italics is courtesy of the Support UBC Library website

Above image is courtesy of the UBC Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences website

June 21st not only marks the beginning of the Summer Solstice but it also means today is National Aboriginal Day in Canada.

Some 15 years ago Governor General Romeo LeBlanc declared June 21st as National Aboriginal Day to honor and celebrate Canada’s Indians, Inuit and Métis. That particular day was chosen because of the cultural significance of the summer solstice in aboriginal cultures. National Aboriginal Day has become a day for all Canadians to celebrate the cultures and contributions to Canada of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and aims to bring about awareness to the rest of Canadian society, in all aspects of art, music, oral history and traditional games.

In celebration of National Aboriginal Day, you can find numerous Aboriginal-related items including historical and current UBC theses and dissertations in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository! See below for more details.

Did You Know?

Currently, there are about 1,980 Aboriginal-related items in cIRcle. To find them, go to the Advanced Search screen in cIRcle and type ‘Aboriginal’ into the ‘Search for’ box.

Above excerpt in italics and image are courtesy of the Summer Solstice / National Aboriginal Day webpage

Some recent undergraduate papers from the GEOG 419 course have been added to cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository!

“Given the diverse nature of geography, our teaching and research are inherently interdisciplinary and we seek to integrate the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. We offer courses in a wide range of geographical specializations at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These extend from postcolonial perspectives to process-oriented scientific inquiry including GIS for spatial analysis and modelling.”

To catch a glimpse of Geography’s undergraduate students by the numbers for the 2010/2011 academic year, see the undergraduate statistics as seen in Geography’s recent newsletter:

Human Geography – Majors: 231 / Honours: 15 / Minors: 15 /

Environment and Sustainability – Majors: 156 /

Physical Geography – Majors: 47 /

Music and Geography – Double Major: 1 /

Did You Know?

Currently, there are about 540 geography theses and dissertations in cIRcle. To find them, go to the Advanced Search screen in cIRcle and select ‘Program ETD’ from the drop-down menu under ‘Search type’ and then type ‘Geography’ into the ‘Search for’ box.

Above excerpt in italics, statistics and image are courtesy of the UBC Geography departmental website

“Simon Neame has been selected as the new Director of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Simon began his library career after obtaining a Master of Library and Information Studies from the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at UBC.”

“The Director’s mandate is to provide strategic leadership for community engagement initiatives on and off campus, along with directing the Learning Centre’s physical facility, and its programs and services for students.”

You can read more by visiting the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre website.

Did You Know?

In harmony with the Director’s mandate for the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, there is a growing collection of IKBLC multimedia items in cIRcle. These items are podcasts and webcasts of local and international guest speakers who presented timely research topics and issues to the UBC community and the general public. So far, some of the Top Country Views of the IKBLC Multimedia collection in cIRcle have been from:

Algeria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Korea, Morocco, Netherlands, Russian Federation, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America

Above excerpt in italics and image are courtesy of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre website